Don’t Get Cocky Kid!

So, I have been watching the Olympics pretty much non-stop for the past several days and I can’t help but continue to notice a trend. Michael Phelps… thats pretty much it. Yeah, we won other metals but whatever Michael Phelps won another gold! Yeah!!! I have literally gotten to the point where I change the channel when the news team starts talking about him. Am I wrong for doing this? For being so damned bored of hearing Michael Phelps this, Michael Phelps that… And the sad thing, I think it may be a bit too much. I am happy he won so many golds in his Olympic career and I think he is an incredible swimmer but in truth, I feel horrible for his teammates – all the other Olympic atheletes out there.

Case in point – the 4 x 100 Freestyle Relay, did we hear how the first African American swimmer received a gold medal? No. Did we hear anymore about how amazing the guy who swam the last leg did? No, you hear how nice Phelps was to the French team. See, I can’t even remember anyone else’s name because every event in swimming has Phelps name attached to it. They will talk about any other swimmer for 30 seconds and then they start talking about Phelps.

He is a great, amazing athelete but he isn’t the only US Olympian out there. I want to hear about other atheletes some more, I want to hear more about the South Korean swimmer who won the first swimming medal ever for South Korea. Yeah, I know its not the US but frak! They had a little broadcast about Phelps winning gold earlier that evening and never even showed the medal ceremony for that event – and the US got the silver in it. Or bronze. I can’t remember. Or the US softball team or the 2nd women’s beach volleyball team… you know the ones who have lost some games in the past few years.

But here is the thing I am most worried about – this is going to put more stress on Phelps. The guy can’t even focus on his swimming. He wins a medal, gets out of the water, does the medal ceremony, does an interview and then gets about 10 – 20 minutes to warm up for the next event. Thankfully last night he they realized he may need more time to get ready and they didn’t bombard him with questions. Unfortunatly, you can see him tiring in the later events. Not being able to go as fast or swim as well as he normally does.

And now that he has beat the lifetime olympic gold medal record, he is focusing on breaking Mark Spints single Olympic gold medal record. As he does this, I have some words of wisdom for him from Han Solo, “Great Kid! Don’t Get Cocky!” Because cockiness is the Olympians kryptonite… just ask the French dudes you beat the other night.

Random Thoughts

"Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends." -Maya Angelou